The Lakers stay in headlines, but this time, not because of the Ball family. Saturday night, NBA writer Peter Vecsey randomly reported a story that could serve as a complete game-changer for next offseason’s free-agency period.
Woj and Ramona Shelburne confirmed Vecsey and laid out exactly what the consequences would entail:
Los Angeles can be punished in several ways, including a loss of draft picks, financial fines up to $5 million, future restrictions on acquiring George and possible suspensions of offending officials.
If the Lakers are proven guilty, which would mean Magic Johnson leaving a pretty obvious paper trail and the NBA rules that Paul George cannot be signed by the Lakers, will LeBron still be a hot name in signing during the 2018 free agency period?
More importantly, if the Lakers tampered with Paul George, it would be dumb to think they didn’t do the same with LeBron. Magic Johnson has a history of being a bit reckless and carefree in his comments. Remember last June when he tweeted about the Lakers needing to sign Durant and LeBron in free agency? These are the kinds of unnecessary situations that could be what holds the Lakers rebuilding process back a couple of years.
“One of the few that’s always showed love from day 1.”
-Lebron James
Lebron is a professional not only on the court but behind the keyboard. He knows what to say when he’s trying to make a point and don’t think that simple birthday wish wasn’t something more than a simple birthday wish. Also, don’t think Dan Gilbert won’t follow suit by filing tampering charges as well.
The league wants to see the Lakers back on top, there’s a ton of fans want to see them back on top and one may argue that the NBA is just a better place when they are. Adam Silver may just have to kill that dream by making an example of the Lakers in this situation, once again putting him in a rough position.
This is still in the very early stages of the probe and the Lakers are denying any wrongdoing and expect this to be cleared up quickly.
